


Rediscovered Roads

by orphan_account



Series: Bon Jovi Songs (Or How Dean Winchester Found His Family) [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Dean Winchester is emotionally constipated, Dean is a Little Shit, Family Feels, Found Families, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Somehow, Sort of a fix-it, but less than canon dean, sort of not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-27
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-28 16:08:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14452851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: If there was one person on this planet that a 26 year old Dean Winchester truly loved, it was his brother. This is the story of a universe where Dean loved Sam a little more, and hated himself a little less. This is the story of a Sam who got a normal life, and a Dean who never did. This is the story of a Dean who wasn’t so selfish and a Sam who was.This is the story of how family don’t end in blood, and how it don’t have to start there either.





	1. Shot Through The Heart

**Author's Note:**

> listen i know i said i was working on part 2 of stolen innocence but i lied. not beta'd or anything. sorry its short :/ kudos/comment if you like!

There is a universe, out there somewhere, in which Dean Winchester loved his brother just a little bit more than the one we know. This Dean left his brother alone on that fateful night in 2006. He searched for his dad alone, lost him alone, went to hell alone, dealt with the apocalypse alone, died alone. Came back alone. Dealt with the leviathans alone. Became a demon alone. Lost everything, all alone.

 

Except, somewhere in there, he stopped being  _ alone _ . He found a new family. One that he loved, one that he was loyal to. The difference between his first family and this one? They were loyal back. Dean would follow these people to the ends of the Earth and he had done so, more than once, and they showed him that he was worth being saved. Charlie, Kevin, Jo, Garth, Castiel, Jody, Ellen, Bobby, Adam, Gabriel, Benny, and, hell, even Crowley, they all became his family. His true family. He hunted, and he was good at it, and somehow he realized a few things about himself along the way and became stronger for it. Dean Winchester was strong. 

 

Sam Winchester, on the other hand, lived the ‘apple-pie life’ that his brother in some other universe somewhere accused him of wanting. He became a lawyer and got married, and his near-death and actual-death experiences stayed at a solid 0. And that was fine. Sam was happy. He had a wife, a 9-5 job, lived in a nice little suburb in Kansas, and pretended he didn’t still keep a gun under his pillow just in case.

 

Sometimes he’d wonder what came of his brother, but because he never talked to any hunters, he never heard the news of his father’s death, or his brother’s (greatly exaggerated) death(s), or the way the hunters had catapulted his brother into ‘legend’ status among their community. Only once had his brother picked up his few calls, and he’d only ever said “Hiya, Sammy.” and had hung up when Sam said “Dean.” 

 

So, Sam hadn’t heard from Dean in a little over ten years. He never talked about his family to Jess, and she was fine with that. Her parents called him a ‘wonderful young man’ and adored him, and sometimes Jess would ask questions that would make him go quiet, and she learnt to avoid those topics. But this Sam never went to hell. This Sam had never been tortured by the devil himself, and this Sam had never needed holy water for anything other than the Christening of his goddaughter. 

 

And then,  _ then,  _ one evening in 2015, Sam Winchester opened his door to find a man who looked like his brother bleeding heavily on his doorstep.

 

\---

 

“Hiya, Sam.” 

 

Sam couldn’t believe his eyes. Or his ears. Standing in front of him, smiling sheepishly, was his brother. After fifteen years, Dean had finally showed up again,and the first thing he says is  _ Hiya, Sam _ ? 

 

“You just gonna stand there starin’ at me, or can I come in?” Dean said gruffly, and Sam couldn’t help but compare the last time he’d seen Dean to this one. He was older, obviously, no longer an awkward 20-year-old trying to find his way in the world, loyal to their dad and no-one else. There was something weary about him, like he’d had all the joy sucked out of him, but there was something more, as well, a glint in his eye that had never been there before, a stance to his shoulders that Sam had never seen. 

 

For a long moment, Sam dithered there in the doorway, and then nodded and stuttered out something like “Sure, yes, come in.” Dean’s heavy footsteps creaked on the wooden floor of his hallway, and he looked around, clearly curious, not a bit disdainful like Sam was expecting. 

 

“Nice place.” Was all Dean said, and Sam gaped at him. The Dean he knew would have scoffed, snorted, and made a big deal of Sam’s humble, safe life, but not this one. This one just looked at the pictures on the wall with world-weary eyes and smiled a tiny, exhausted smile. Sam stumbled over his ‘thanks’, not sure where to begin. Fifteen years hadn’t changed them that much, had it?

 

Looking at Dean, Sam knew it had. 

 

“Um, you, uh. You need a first aid kit?” Sam ventured after a moment. When Dean nodded, he gestured him into the living room and then turned right back around and darted into the downstairs toilet, where they kept the first aid stuff. And, well, if he took a moment to lean over the sink and  _ breathe _ , well, that was no-one’s business but his own.

 

“-Shouldn’t we take you to a hospital?” Jess’ voice filtered through the door, and Sam rubbed his eyes and grabbed the green box that had never gotten any use until now.

 

When Sam turned the corner, it was to his wife standing in the doorway to the living room, worry and caution both etched into her stance. “I don’t really do hospitals.” Dean was saying, and Sam squeezed past Jess to put the box down in front of his brother. 

 

Dean thanked him and begun to strip off layers, and Jess turned to Sam with a very strange expression.

 

Somehow, Sam ended up in the kitchen with Jess throwing accusations left and right. “ _ That’s  _ your brother? The one who you said you were sure was dead?” She asked incredulously, and Sam sighed tiredly and nodded. “What the hell is he doing here?” 

 

“I don’t know, Jess, he just showed up. I know as much as you do. Less, probably, since you just talked to him for a few minutes and that's more than I’ve gotten out of him in fifteen years!” Sam snapped at her, and then sighed again. Jess was looking at him with those eyes again, that look that he hated. “No, Jess, I don’t need to talk about this- let’s... Go and see why he’s here, okay?” 

 

After a hard stare, Jess relented and Sam breathed a sigh of relief (he’d already sighed more in the past ten minutes than he had in the past year and a half alone.)

 

Unfortunately, it seemed like they weren’t going to get answers out of Dean any time soon, since when they went back to living room, he had his phone pressed between his cheek and his ear.

 

“I’m tellin’ you, Cas, I don’t know what it was. No, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a-- No,  _ Gabriel,  _ it wasn’t just a really big dog. Look, just… Get down here ASAP, would you? All four of you. Three, then. And tell Bobby I said hi when you drop her off.” 

 

Sam raised his eyebrows, a little confused. That was three people Sam didn’t know that he’d referenced - ‘Cas’, Gabriel, and whoever ‘she’ was, and he’d mentioned Bobby, too, presumably Bobby Singer, if that crazy son of a bitch was even still alive. But that, that wasn’t even the weirdest part of everything. 

 

“Yeah, okay. Drive safe. Tell Benny if he crashes my Baby I’ll stake him myself. Yeah. Alright. Love you too, Cas.” 

 

The last time Sam had heard Dean say the word ‘love’ in reference to a person had been when he was twelve, and Dean had said, “I love you, Sammy.” to him before he went to bed. 

 

The  _ beep  _ of Dean putting the phone down interrupted his thoughts. “Okay, so, I, uh. I know it’s been a while, and I know I probably should have called every once in a while, but I need a place to stay until I can get picked up. You mind?” 

 

Sam and Jess made eye contact. “No, we don’t mind. Spare room is all yours.” 

 

Dean’s eyes crinkled a bit and he looked something like relieved. “Thanks, Sammy. Hey, you guys got any beer?” 

 

Some things never change. 

\----

It had been days since Dean had seen any of his family. Cas, Charlie, Gabe, and Benny had gone off to hunt down a group of wendigo in Vermont, Bobby was in no shape to be hunting nowadays, not that he’d ever say that to the man, and Ellen and Crowley were taking it in turns to make sure he didn’t drink himself to death. Jody was ‘babysitting’ Claire and Jo on what was supposed to be their first hunt alone together, Kevin was visiting his mom, and Adam and Samandriel were taking the week off in California somewhere. Garth was, of course, nowhere to be found, and Dean had been on the tail of a potential werewolf pack when he’d been attacked by an apparent vampire. Luckily, no bites had ensued, but Dean had been scratched up pretty badly, and he wasn’t driving Baby so there was no first aid kit in the new car.

 

So here he was. Long, long ago, he’d gotten an invitation, sent to Bobby’s, for his brother’s wedding, and on it had been a return address. One he’d memorized, just in case, and Chuck was it coming in handy now.

 

He knew that he’d decided years ago that he wasn’t going to get Sammy involved in any of this, but he was desperate, and bleeding, and hurt, and dammit, he hadn’t asked for a single thing in almost fifteen years, so surely Sam could suck it up and deal with it.

 

Bleeding and leaning heavily against the wall of his baby brother’s porch, he closed his eyes, took a deep (painful) breath, and then lifted his hand and rang the doorbell.

 

\--

 

The next half hour was a blur, and when he finally came back to himself he was collapsing into a bed and wondering if he could convince Gabriel to heal him. 

 

Seeing Sam had been… Eye opening, to say the least. After fifteen years, he was still expecting a chubby-faced eighteen year old to open the door. Instead, he’d gotten a new Sam. And, hideously, for a moment, he’d seen the calmness, the joy, in Sam’s eyes, in his face, and he’d been almost sick with jealousy. He’d been to  _ hell,  _ literally, twice, while Sam was probably having Sunday brunch with his parents-in-law.

 

Dean sighed deeply and rolled onto his non-injured side. 

 

The jealousy had disappeared as quickly as it has come, and talking to Cas (and Gabriel and Charlie) had done wonders for his guilt on the topic. For a moment, he debated calling Bobby, and then decided against it. He was a grown-ass man, he could make his own grown-ass decisions. That didn’t change the fact that he wanted to hear Bobby’s voice, especially after the day he’d had, and the bed was icy cold beside him, no angel to keep it warm.

 

He sat up, sighed, and flopped back down again. He loved Sam, or he did once, and he’d sworn to himself to never get Sam back into the life. And he’d succeeded. He’d kept an eye on him, of course, especially after Lucifer got popped from his box, but not so much as a sneeze from Sam. 

 

His little Sam, all grown up. A lawyer, no less. Living a few blocks away from where their house had gone up in flames. Before Hell, Dean would have scoffed at this life Sam had made, jeered and jabbed at him, but now Dean was more mature than that. (The whipped cream all over the walls of the bunker begged to differ).

 

Dean knew he’d give anything to have this sort of life, but at the same time, giving up Benny and Kevin and Charlie and God, Cas, it was unthinkable. Falling in love could really do that.

 

Cas had fallen for him, in more ways than one, and thinking about it, thinking about those intense, bright blue eyes and the gravelly voice rumbling his name… Well, if he were less exhausted that would do something for him. As it were, he was far too tired for any of that, though when Cas actually got there, it would probably be a different story.

 

With another deep sigh, Dean shifted his weight and closed his eyes, one palm pressed to his side and the other tucked under his pillow, wrapped around the handle of his gun. Years of hunting left it’s mark.

 

After a long while of laying there awake, Dean finally dropped into an exhausted slumber, and he dreamt of blue-eyed angels and dark-haired demons and his time on the Rack.

 

\---

 

For the first time in weeks, Dean opened his eyes to the smell of bacon. He smiled a tiny bit and shifted, planning on throwing his arm over the warm body next to him. It had been a while since he and Cas had gotten to wake up next to each other, and even longer since they’d both been there for one of Ellen and Jody’s joint breakfasts. 

 

His arm hit cool sheets, and the pillow he buried his nose in was a too squishy and smelt like nothing but laundry powder, and he jolted when he realized where he was.

 

Oh, right. The werewolf/vampire (say it with me, a werepire). Sam. The phone call.

 

Right.

 

Dean huffed and tucked his arm back into the warm little burrow he’d created, feeling crushing loneliness rise in his chest.

 

Dammit. He missed his family.


	2. Livin' On A Prayer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aight so. i know sam/jess isnt a popular ship in the fandom, but i loved jess and i felt like they could have done way more with her, so i added her in. plus, i needed someone who Isnt A Hunter to provide outside perspective. next chapter is the bunker, sam seeing bobby again after a long ass time, and more jealousy on sams part, this time with kevin who ALSO DESERVED MORE

To say things were uncomfortable here was an understatement. Dean was sat across from Sam, his massive moose of a brother, and awkwardly picked at his breakfast with none of his usual gusto.

 

The reason for this awkwardness was sitting next to him, warm knee pressed against his, a silent, but welcome, support. Of all the things Dean had dealt with, demons and angels and leviathans and  _ literally satan _ , this might possibly be the worst. Because coming out to his little brother wasn’t something Dean had ever thought he’d have to do.

 

Let’s recap.

 

A little over ten minutes ago, Castiel, the angel, Gabriel, the archangel, and Benny, the vampire, had showed up at Sam’s house. Sam was, of course, unaware of the species difference and had politely invited them in. 

 

And here is where the trouble begins. Having not seen each other for weeks on end, three near-death experiences on Dean’s part, and being trapped in a car for upwards of six hours with only Gabriel and Benny for company on Cas’s, well, it was safe to say that they’d missed each other. 

 

A lot. 

 

After a warm welcome, Dean and Cas eventually parted for air and Dean finally greeted his friends, his family, with a hug for Benny and flick on Gabriel’s forehead coupled with a fond “Twerp.” because Gabriel had never been a hugging kind of dude and Dean got it.

 

And then he turned around and found a slightly red-faced Sam staring at him. 

 

Now, here they were, sat uncomfortably at the table, Dean gripping Cas’ hand almost painfully tightly, with Benny’s supportive, if protective, hand on his shoulder. 

 

“So, ah. Ahem.” Sam started, scratching the back of his neck. “You two been together long?” 

 

“Dean and I have been together for three years now.” Cas answered promptly, eyes flicking to Dean with a fond expression. Even after so long, Cas didn’t seem to get that his emotions were always written all over his face. So the difference between the sheer love he had on his face for Dean and the disdainful, slightly cold glare he gazed at Sam with was even more obvious. “Ever since he got back from-- From, ah. P… Pasadena. Yes.” 

 

Sam cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Right.” 

 

Awkward silence reigned for a long, long moment, and then Gabriel clapped once.

 

“Alright, kids, this has been fun and all, but we really should bounce, since, y’know, we abandoned a case to pick up mister flat tire over here.” 

 

Sam almost seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, glad to see them go, but then Jess, of course, stepped up. “No, no! Don’t go! It’s been years since you guys last talked to each other, right? Don’t you have some things you want to say?” 

 

More awkward silence. Benny’s hand tightened on his shoulder, silent encouragement. “No. No, there isn’t. Sam left. That’s all there is to it. End of story.” 

 

“Hey, I just went to college, Dean! I tried calling you hundreds of times!” Sam protested, sitting up a little straighter. “You never answered!” 

 

Dean smiled at him, humorless. “So I got a little busy.” 

 

“Too busy to answer my calls?” 

 

Dean threw his chair back and stood up abruptly, palms flat on the table. “Yes, Sam, I was too busy to answer your damn calls. I was too busy being with my actual family!” 

 

Sam jerked back as though the words had been a physical punch, Cas hissed through his teeth, and Benny whispered, “Brother, come on-” 

 

To Dean’s eternal shame, his eyes were actually burning. 

 

Jess looked taken aback, and Sam was staring up at Dean with wide, shocked eyes. 

 

“I didn’t answer your calls because dad told me not to.” Dean said eventually. 

 

“And after?” Sam accused. 

 

In front of Dean’s eyes, Hell flashed for a moment, the Rack and the souls and- 

 

Benny squeezed his bicep and Cas lightly touched his hand and the images faded. 

 

“I was busy, like I said. You know the life. Not much time to spend answering phone calls from wayward younger brothers.” Which was a lie - just last week he’d spend an hour and a half on the phone with Kevin after his first solo hunt, calming him from his panic attack and reassuring him that he’d done a good job. “Things kind of went ass backwards around 2008. Haven’t really righted themselves since.” 

 

\---

 

Dean took a deep, slow breath and leaned his head into his angel’s shoulder. That had been quite possibly the worst conversation he’d ever had to have in his life. And to make matters all the more uncomfortable, Sam’s wife, Jess, had insisted that they accompany them to the bunker, because, in her words, “Fifteen years is a lot of time and you two need to catch up. And anyway, we’re both due for a vacation.” 

 

“I just don’t get it, Cas.” Dean mumbled into the tan fabric under his face, and felt a bit of tension he didn’t know he’d been carrying melt away when Cas’ arms wrapped around his back. “Fifteen years, and he’s mad at me for not returning his phone calls. If he really wanted to talk to me that badly, there were other ways.” 

 

Cas hummed, the sound vibrating through his head and making him huff in amusement. 

 

“Dean. I believe you may be winning that bet of ours.” Cas murmured, the topic change sudden but not unexpected. Dean lifted his head and glanced towards where Cas was pointing. 

 

Benny was leaning over Gabriel, obviously in his space, using the few inches between them to his advantage. As they watched, Benny reached up and cupped Gabriel’s cheek, wiping some smudge of something off. 

 

They were totally involved in each other, which was incredible - everyone had been rooting for them, it was the most popular relationship bet since Dean and Cas had gotten over themselves and done the dirty - but Dean couldn’t let them have it that easy. After all, Gabriel had blocked him more than once from finally kissing Cas. 

 

So he pulled away from his angel, strode over to where Benny and Gabriel were inches away from each other, and slapped the former on the shoulder with a cheery, “Burnin’ daylight, Benny.” 

 

The glare he got from a pissy archangel was worth it. This was, after all, the same pissy archangel that yelled at him to hurry up in the shower in the morning.

 

“That was low, brother. Even for you.” Benny muttered on his way past, and Dean gave him a shit-eating grin.

 

\----------

 

Sam was conflicted, to say the least. He tossed a few shirts into his case, but he wasn’t really focusing on what was going in. He’d seen the silent comradery between Dean and the tall dude, Benny, heard them call each other “Brother”, seen the way Dean acted with the little guy, and he… He was jealous. That could have been him with Dean, easily. If he’d gotten over himself and taken a day trip down to Sioux Falls, seen Bobby, seen  _ Dean _ , then they wouldn’t be in this situation. 

 

Instead, here they were. Near strangers to each other. Dean clearly loved these people more than he loved Sam, and Sam didn’t know what to do about it. He knew he was being selfish in his jealousy, that he’d chosen this life for himself, but he sort of missed hunting, in a weird way. He was more than out of practice,  and Dean had clearly been busy, but he couldn’t help but be mad. All those years, all those calls, and not once had Dean picked up. 

 

“You’re thinking too hard again.” Jess’ voice broke him out of his brooding, as usual. “You’ve got your thinking shoulders on.” 

 

Sam huffed quietly in amusement. “I don’t have ‘thinking shoulders’.” Jess scoffed and threw her deodorant into the case.

 

“Sure you do. I see them all the time. They’re your most common shoulders.”

 

With an eye roll, Sam grabbed another shirt at random and tossed it into their case, making Jess scoff again. 

 

Again, Sam found his thoughts drawn back downstairs, where his brother was waiting. His brother. The one who he’d been one hundred percent sure on being dead. Their dad… He never had found out what had killed their mom, had he? Surely if he was still alive, Dean would have mentioned it. 

 

Right?

 

Sam rubbed his hands over his face and sat down on the bed.

 

So much had changed, with Dean, with himself… He didn’t even know if they could ever go back to being what they’d been before.    
  


He didn’t know if he wanted to. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos or comment if you like. dont expect new chapters this fast again im usually slow as hecc


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